About Jill

Life in quarantine

I misspelled “quarantine” when I first wrote it down in my Book View Cafe blog. It was not a word I used much in my writing. In health care, the word was “isolation”. “Quarantine” was reserved for plagues such as small pox and typhoid. I imagine now that there is a newer term for isolating patients for the two major reasons of either protecting them from others, or protecting others from them.

So I write in quarantine, but I have always done so; writing is a solo experience. Even when in workshop mode one does one’s homework alone, isolated except for music or an old black and white movie.

However I am not technically alone. Three living beings of the five I share this house with are here now, and generally they are peaceful and leave me alone, except for the predictable cat on a keyboard, or a mastiff barking in my ear at the garbage truck outside.

So, here they are, in all their meditative, sleeping splendor, while I write alone.

The Memory Book updates

As I am writing my “into the dark” novella, or whatever it is, now and then I think I should comment about choices. Scene 1 is written in first person. Then I read through the first 3 scenes, and realized that this book needs to be in close 3rd person, so that I can get into the heads of key characters. Augustus and Beatrix, being primary characters will probably earn the majority of the narrative, but as characters walk in, such as Rosemary and Pretty Thing walk onto the stage, I like to inhabit them. Their perspective gives the reader a broader glimpse into the world I am building. And a broader glimpse for the writer–me–into the world and the conflict and how selfish motives will drive the narrative.

As the story develops, changes will and must be made along the way, including going back to either tweak or severely edit. “Writing into the dark”, however, necessitates leaving those adjustments and surgeries to the last, when the work is complete. Each post may contain conflicts in the writing, much less for the characters.

And, in case you are now thinking that is the reason I delete each prior scene from the website, my rationale is quite other.

1.) I want you to visit my website every Monday and leave a brief comment; a boo or a brava! will suffice. In this way I might even get a newsletter subscription going for my five fans, and give away a free short story now and then.

2.) Deleting each scene each week, leaving the scene available for only 7 days, may discourage piracy. One may hope.

The author.

Some very-much needed, and very-well written, political fantasy (by myself, of course, and others):

What do you want to know about me? I won’t tell you my age, but I will tell you about the books. Historical fiction is my current love, but for years I have written fantasy and science fiction short stories. Those stories that have become novels, and that I like to sell, are available at the links provided here.

Enjoy, read, explore.

Here is a photo of our two English mastiffs, just to give you a glimpse of me.